Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 1.djvu/89

which period the short appoggiatura appears to have first come into use, it was customary to make use of certain signs (Ex. 14), but as after a time the long appoggiatura was introduced, these were given up in favour of the small note still used. This small note ought always to be written of the exact value which it is to bear, if a long appoggiatura (Ex. 15); or if a short one it should be written as a quaver or semiquaver with a short stroke across the stem in the opposite direction to the hook (Ex. 16).[1]

But the earlier writers often wrote the short appoggiatura as a semiquaver or demisemiquaver without the stroke, and in many new editions of old compositions we find the small note printed with the stroke even where it should be played long, while in modern music the semiquaver without the stroke is often met with where the short appoggiatura is obviously intended. In this uncertainty the surest guide is the study of the treatment of the appoggiatura by the great masters in the numerous cases in which they have written it out in notes of the ordinary size (see Beethoven, Bagatelles, Op. 119, No. 4, Bar 2; Mozart, Sonata in C, Halle's edition, No. 6, Bar 37, &c.), as by analogy we may hope to arrive at some understanding of their intentions respecting it when we find it merely indicated by the small note.

The following series of examples of the conditions under which the several kinds of appoggiatura are most commonly met with, may also be of service in the same direction.

The appoggiatura is short when used before two or more repeated notes (Ex. 17), before detached or staccato notes (Ex. 18), or leaps (Ex. 19), at the commencement of a phrase (Ex. 20), and before groups containing dotted notes in somewhat quick tempo (Ex. 21).

17. Beethoven, Septett.

18. Mozart, Sonata in C.

19. Mozart, Sonata in C.

20. Mozart, Sonata in A minor.

21. Hummel, Op. 55.

In triplets, or groups of four or more equal notes, the appoggiatura is short (Ex. 22), except in groups of three notes in slow triple time (Ex. 23). The appoggiatura at a distance from its principal note is short (Ex. 24), except sometimes in slow cantabile passages (Ex. 25). Appoggiaturas occurring in a melody which ascends or descends by diatonic degrees are moderately short (Ex. 26), as are also those which occur in a melody descending by thirds (Ex. 27). Emanuel Bach says of these—'when the appoggiaturas fill up leaps of a third in the melody they are certainly short, but in adagio their expression should be smoother, as though representing one of a triplet of quavers rather than a semiquaver.' Türk calls them 'undecided appoggiaturas.'

22. Beethoven, 'Bagatelles,' No. 1.

Op. 22.

23. Mozart, 'Don Giovanni.'

24. Haydn, Sonata in E♭.

25. Mozart, 'Requiem.'

26. Bach, Passepied in B.

27. Mozart, Rondo in D.

In groups of two equal notes the appoggiatura is long if in slow tempo or at the end of a phrase (Ex. 28); if otherwise, short (Ex. 29).

↑This transverse stroke is probably an imitation of the stroke across the note in the (now obsolete) acciacatura. (See that word.)